55% Of U.S. Females Aged 15 – 44 Now Live In Anti-Abortion States

In case you haven’t noticed, there is a war going on in the United States: a war on women.

If you suspected this, but weren’t quite sure, a new report from the Guttmacher Institute policy analysis will confirm your worst nightmares.

According to the report, 55 percent of all reproductive-age U.S. women lived in a state hostile to abortion rights in 2011, up significantly from 31% in 2000, as many “middle ground” states have shifted to “hostile” over the past decade.

We’ve been documenting many of these developments at Care2, and you can read all about them in detail here.

“In 2000, the country was more evenly divided: nearly a third of women lived in states solidly hostile to abortion rights, slightly more than a third in states supportive of abortion rights and close to a third in middle-ground states,” says Rachel Benson Gold, Guttmacher’s director of policy analysis. “By 2011, however, more than half of women of reproductive age lived in hostile states. This growth came largely at the expense of the states in the middle. Only one in 10 women lived in a middle-ground state by 2011.”

The analysis finds that most states—35 in total—remained in the same category in all three years. However, of the 15 states whose abortion policy landscape changed substantially, all became more restrictive. Two formerly supportive states had moved to the middle-ground category by 2011, and one had become hostile. And 12 states that had been middle-ground in 2000 had become hostile by 2011. In 2000, 19 states were middle-ground and only 13 were hostile. By 2011, 26 states were hostile to abortion rights, and the number of middle-ground states had been cut in half, to nine.

The map that Guttmacher provides presents a clear picture: west coast and northeastern states have remained consistently supportive of abortion rights. But in the middle of the country, a number of states have moved from being middle-ground states in 2000 to hostile in 2011. And of the 13 states in the south, half were hostile in 2000, but all had become so by 2011.

The authors of the report also endeavor to add a break in the gloomy news.

“There is certainly ample precedent of reproductive rights supporters in those states stopping or blunting restrictive abortion bills,” says Gold. “And they have had some other noteworthy successes in recent years in enacting a proactive agenda to expand access to sexual and reproductive health-related services. For instance, Colorado has mandated contraceptive insurance coverage and Wisconsin has expanded access to comprehensive sex education.”

But today, we’re seeing yet another attack on women’s rights, in a different arena: Republican senators are threatening to block the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which investigates and prosecutes violent crimes against women.

" It is not the woman's body, it is the child's who live within hers, to be protected"

Really? I think the above comment is very telling Roseanne. I personally did not change from a real live human being with the same rights as the man next to me into nothing more than a vessel for the life within me whilst carrying my children. Perhaps you would like to clarify that statement because that's what it implies to me. Surely you didn't mean it that way, or did you?

No matter what I or anyone else says, you have closed your minds sadly. You can believe those who lie to you if you want. I gave you some pro life sites to maybe get some balance in there somewhere! It is sad when people don't see the real truth of the matter, because it finishes up causing them and others enormous pain and suffering in the finish. American law used Jane Roe, Norma McCorvey to bring abortion on demand into practice. She was exploited and she tells her own story now -- do you know she didn't even have an abortion? Abortion is an abuse of women and their children, that brings death. People's rights only extend to where another's begins. It is not the woman's body, it is the child's who live within hers, to be protected. Why am I so passionate about this issue? I am passionate about people, that's why! Because I have personally seen the ugliness of abortion, the suffering of it in women and want to prevent still more from falling victim to it! Because I hate the lies you have been told! I see the injustice done to you, by those who truly do not care! I

This is about keeping men from being responsible and holding only women responsible. There you are you bad girl. You had sex. That is a sin, unless you are married. You should be punished for this sin, but we can't figure out how to do that. But we can punish you for becoming pregnant. And we will remove any options from you to stop or protect against that pregnancy. You now are solely responsible for the care, and costs associated with raising that child. Men committed the sin of having sex with you, but we can't punish them for that. If the woman gets pregnant and she is not married, we can only punish her by making her carry this pregnancy to term. Remember, you sinned first in Eden, and are to be punished for this, you were only created to be man's helpmeet. Tough luck, but that's the way we see it. Mind your place woman.

Roseanne - Whilst I respect your passion for your stance - may I gently point out that you are not the only person posting here with some (or much) medical knowledge. You have presented some indisputable medical facts, but you have woven in so many fallacies and distortions amidst those few valid points that your entire arguement falls apart. (To offer such blatantly anti choice websites as "proof" of your multiple claims does nothing to further your agenda incidentally). American women have a right to health care - they have a right to self determination, and they have a right to the autonomy of their own bodies, without interference from government. This is not an opinion - this is, or should be, fact.
Rather than spend so much unproductive time attempting to control the reproductive lives of others, these politicians should get off their backsides and attempt to put a once great country back together, or at the very least, make the pretense of representing the people who elected them, as opposed to wasting time coming up with draconian laws designed to send half the population back to the dark ages.

Your twist on what those statements mean is your opinion. Biological life begins. Ascribing consciousness and ensoulment to these events is your wish and is not science. Science cannot even determine where and when the soul attaches itself to the consciousness. So again your facts are fiction. Biological life that has the potential to become human life once it has completely evolved with a patent active discerning nervous system begins at conception, not personhood.

It is not my personal opinion, that's the whole point! If you look up basic anatomy and physiology books, sites like Family Life International, Right to Life, Voice foe Life, or Google, Life before birth, you will see the facts. Human life begins at conception. I can not "prove" to you that you are in fact " human," so you will believe me. Does that mean you are not human merely because you or someone else chooses to believe you are not?! Is it a matter of opinion or fact?
Is it because people do not want to "see" certain people as human beings, that they tell themselves or others that, to justify the taking of human life? Or is it because others have lied to them? Do they truly not see those people as people, like them?
Check out DR Bernard Nathenson and his experience...

I am not short of the factual knowledge, I don't want to spend time trying to explain to people who really don't want to know. Anything I tell you, you will try to say is lies, so it becomes futile. Your position is untenable in the face of the truth.
I know all the methods of abortion, from contraception that contains abortifacients, to prostaglandin, saline and partial birth abortion, plus a myriad of others. I can describe to you what happens to the child in each and the mother. Did you know that in some places it is legal to abort a baby from the time of earliest detection of pregnancy, to the baby being in the birth canal, just before their head crowns?
"After birth abortion," is now being advocated by Dr Minerva of Melbourne.
When conception occurs at fertilisation, a new life is formed by the process of 'Meiosis." The cell containing the new life produces hormones that travel to the woman's pituitary gland, which in turn, stimulates the continued production of oestrogen to maintain the lining of the uterus in preparation for implantation at 5-6 days. The "facts" that I have told you are those given to nurses in their training, they are not my opinion!